Micro Manager

What is a 'Micro Manager'

A micro manager is a boss or manager who gives excessive supervision to employees. A micro manager, rather than telling an employee what task needs to be accomplished and by when, will watch the employee's actions closely and provide frequent criticism of the employee’s work and processes.

BREAKING DOWN 'Micro Manager'

Micromanagement is a form of leadership that may produce results in the short-term, but hurt employee and company morale over time. Usually, micromanaging has a negative connotation because an employee may feel that a micro manager is being condescending towards them, due to a perceived lack of faith in the employee's competency. Also, a manager who implements this management style creates an environment where his team develops insecurity and lack of confidence in its work. In the absence of the manager, the team may find it difficult to function.

A micromanager will usually use up most of his time supervising the work of his direct reports and exaggerating the importance of minor details to subordinates; time that could have been used to get other important things done. Although micromanagement is easily recognized by others in the firm, the micro manager may not view himself or herself as such. Signs of micro managers include but are not limited to:

Asking to be CC’d on every email

Occupying themselves with the work assigned to others, thereby, taking on more work than they can handle because they believe they can do it better

Looking over the team’s shoulders repeatedly to monitor what each member is working on

Constantly asking for updates on where things stand

Wanting to know what each team member is working on all the time

Delegating not only what needs to be done, but how it should be done, leaving no room for the team to take their own initiative

Never being satisfied with the deliverables

Focusing on details that are not important

From the compacted list provided above, it is easy to understand that a micromanager struggles with meeting deadlines since work has to be redone repeatedly and valuable time is spent poring over inconsequential details. Team members eventually become frustrated and resentful as their work is undermined at every stage and they have no autonomy over how to run an assigned project. Because team members' skills and development on the job are stunted, the micromanaging style of leadership is ineffective.

In contrast to a micromanager, a macro manager is more effective in his or her management approach. A macro manager defines broad tasks for direct reports to accomplish and then leaves them alone to do their work. S/he has confidence that the team can complete the same task without being continually reminded of the process.

A micro manager who has identified himself or herself as such can take a number of steps to break this habit:

Set a couple of metrics that define success for any given project. Ignore every other detail that is not defined.

Delegate “what” needs to be done and leave out the “how.”

Have an open-door policy for members of the team to use for coaching or further guidance if and when they want it.

Set a deadline for each stage of an assigned project, after which a meeting with a reasonable time limit should be conducted to receive updates on the work.